Calgary Kart Racing Club to Build New Track

[e31]

I'm surprised this hasn't been picked up sooner, front page news if you ask me.

Calgary Kart Racing Club to Build New Track




There are even some drawings showing supermoto sections to be added. Very cool.

In addition, they are looking for volunteers this weekend to put up fencing around the area. I feel dumb for not thinking to post this earlier.

[Canmorite]

That looks great. Anyone know what it costs to buy and run a cart to compete? Always thought it'd be a blast.

[zieg]

I did some research and it looks fairly easy to do under 10k. I just don't have a way to transport it

[roopi]

Originally posted by Canmorite
That looks great. Anyone know what it costs to buy and run a cart to compete? Always thought it'd be a blast.

Details on how to get started and costs here:

http://www.ckrc.com/outdoor-kart-racing.asp

[Neons4life]

Does anyone know if they will running the AMRA club there (minimoto's)?

[D__]

Can you be a fat guy and participate?

[MGCM]

all the way out past Strathmore, SHAME ON YOU CALGARY!!!!!!

[beyond_ban]

It'd be cool if they had karts to rent for a few hours. Not worth it to me to buy my own, but still would love the thrill of racing.

[D__]

What is the more popular division?

[flipstah]

Originally posted by beyond_ban
It'd be cool if they had karts to rent for a few hours. Not worth it to me to buy my own, but still would love the thrill of racing.

$10k isn't bad though. Storage for me, is a problem.

[MGCM]

u can fit a go-kart into almost any hatchback, its surprisingly not that bad on storage either

[D__]

So half ton should be good to go then. I was thinking you would need a trailer.

[zieg]

No, but a wrx sedan is a no go.


Though I do have a roof rack....

[speedog]

Originally posted by MGCM
all the way out past Strathmore, SHAME ON YOU CALGARY!!!!!!

Why shame on Calgary - a lot of these karting enthusiasts probably are Calgarians.

If you're making a reference to Calgary's racing community then shame in that community and not Calgary as a whole - if Calgary's racing communities want racing facilities closer into the city, then those racing communities need to step up to the plate.

[speedog]

Further to my post above, the CKRC has been existence since the early 60's which evolved into what appears to be a quite successful non-profit organization. As such, people can probably rest assured that that non-profit organization weighed very carefully the financial risks involved in obtaining land and building a track nearer to Calgary.

I guess the bigger question is whether or not there or similar organizations in or around the Calgary area that support other forms of racing including drag racing, oval, street, auto-cross, whatever? If there is, then are they doing anything similar to CKRC and if they don't exist, then shame on Calgary's racing community in not being proactive like the CKRC.

Building a modern racing facility will be expensive - anything locally that may come to be (Airdrie and the one out near Drumheller) will almost be club membership types of venues. I don't see there being much access for the ordinary joe blow and certainly it doesn't appear that anything's on the books to replace things like Race City's very successful secret street events.

CMRA (Calgary Motorcycle Roadracing Association) - stated they won't resume operations until a track is built (link)

CDRA (Calgary Drag Racing Association) - were told that the new Airdrie track would not include a drag strip because no investment was offered up from the drag racing community. A post from one of their members on their Facebook paqe - "The guys who are heading that deal emailed me last year and stated that since nobody with any drag racing interest had done any investing there would not be any effort to include a dragstrip in the initial planning. They would however offer a Friday Night Secret Street event when they could but there would be absolutely not track prep as it could ruin their surface. WTF???"

CORA (Calgary Oval Racing Association - web site's dead.

CSCC (Calgary Sports Car Club) - who knows as their web site has been suspended.

Am not going to search out other Calgary and area racing clubs but the look of things is that no one club stepped up to the plate to try to secure their racing futures with the exception of CKRC - kudos to CKRC for looking after themselves and to the rest, it is a sad state of affairs and especially so when one can look a few hours away and find facilities in much smaller centers such as the Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Edmonton areas. All Calgary's possibly even got going on is some possible venues that will have a bit of exclusivity built into them - that average young kid building their first car, they're still not going to have a place to race it that resembles anything convenient like Race City was.

So sad that Lethbridge and Medicine Hat are one upping what should be much larger racing communities in Calgary.

[MGCM]

cscc is up and running, always has been far as i know

http://cscc.speedracer.ca/forums/index.php?action=forum

I say shame on Calgary as a city for not doing something to replace race city while still accomodating all the types of racing it had to offer, including a proper karting track. The city should have been more involved in helping a new location for all of that to happen, not just shut down race city and leave us all SOL.

I give the karting organization props for finding a still somewhat close to Calgary location, but it will definately be harder to attract new ppl to the sport when they have to drive approx 30min-1hour maybe more in some cases, just to race for a few hours and turn around and go home. Auto-x for cscc right now is in Fort Mcleod and Red Deer, thats a full days commitment to go racing. Where as race city you could commit half your day to racing and half to other things in life you may wish to do. Again, its all shame in the City of Calgary for shutting down race city and the karting track with no care whatsoever to the ppl and money invested by others and how they were displaced.

[speedog]

I would say shame on Calgary as well but all the parties involved with Race City were well aware of the future with respect to that venue being built on leased land owned by the CoC. Are the venues near Edmonton, Lethbridge or Medicine Hat on privately held land of county/city owned land? My suspicions are they're on land they themselves own which means they've a much better control over their future.

Now of course people will argue that the CoC already is in the sports venue business and yes, they are, but my gut instinct tells me that the tax paying public no more wants to fund a new hockey arena or football stadium no more than they wish to have the CoC involved in some racing facility.

Never the less, if there were a racing facility built near Calgary that offered the varieties of venues that Race City did and this racing facility wasn't some almost club type of facility, then I could see people flocking to it. But the CoC owes no one an apology nor should they be in the racing business - that should be the domain of the various local racing clubs/organizations who it would appear are doing very little to advance their cause and who instead appear to be awaiting others to build a facility for them.

How is it that the CKRC could have the foresight that is so apparent that the other racing clubs did not?

[MGCM]

other clubs as u said knew what was coming, and made their decisions accordingly

[chrenan]

CSCC is running a time attack series at Castrol in Edmonton this summer. I participated in the first event and they did a great job.

[Go4Long]

Originally posted by Neons4life
Does anyone know if they will running the AMRA club there (minimoto's)?

yes they will as far as I know.

I was talking to Jay the other day at Blackfoot about it...he's not that involved with it anymore, someone else took the club over from him and his wife (and he's enjoying "retirement" from it), but the club is still going strong.